Understanding the importance of Keywords for SEO
Basic SEO – Part one of our look into SEO. From Keywords, On-Page and Off-Page considerations.
The Gutenberg Block Editor, and why you want it
So what is Gutenberg? The latest WordPress editor is a fast, easy to use layout tool that makes editing your website a breeze. If you’re still stuck on the Classic Editor, it is high time you switched! Find out why…
Image editing alternatives to Photoshop in 2024
UPDATED August 2024 If you have an online presence of any sort, you’ll need to deal with editing images. If you’ve had a website redesigned, or plan on updating your older site, an image editing app will be vital. Until now, you may have just taken images off your phone and uploaded them. Perhaps cropping them on your phone itself and then used it. But what if you need to do more? At the very least, you’ll want to reduce the size or pixel count. Photoshop may be the industry standard for photo editing but it carries a huge price tag and demands vast system resources. It’s what we use and works very well but not everyone can justify the heavy price. To help you gain more control over your images, we put together a few alternatives that are either free or affordable alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. Image editing types Image editor apps tend to focus on one of two image types: Raster and Vector. Raster images Vector images For now, we’ll look at the raster or pixel based editors – so the ones for photos basically. Image Editors – free or affordable Ashampoo Image Optimiser I’ve known of Ashampoo…
Actionable SEO in 2024
SEO is still massively relevant in 2024, and you can make an immediate start on the simple bits! Just break it down into smaller actionable bits. It’s amazing how few businesses are taking the time to just do good, basic housekeeping on their websites. If you don’t have the time and want some help, we’ll gladly lend a hand and do it for you but if you want to know more, don’t touch that dial. We’ll look at each part of your web page and how you can improve them for a good start on your basic on-page SEO. Search Engine Optimisation is a deep topic, and one that is evolving constantly but there are some stable aspects which are still in use: A great starting point is with good house-keeping or simple best practices for on-page SEO. Bitesized basics 2. On-page SEO Let’s look at each of the key parts of the page, and the areas you can improve. Title Your page title should accurately describe what people will find on the page. Writing titles is a bit of an art form but you want to entice people to read but also be factual. In WordPress, your title is…
Image sizes and formats
Unsure about image sizes on your website?We’ll look at why sizing your images for your website is important. First, a little about images: Below is a really small image which is 80px wide (the little one in the corner) – it’s great for a thumbnail but not much else. The main image below shows the tiny image expanded up in size by 1600%, and you can see the individual pixels that make up the image. If you want to use an image full screen, it has to be large enough to be placed at 100% size and not suffer the degradation we see below. Below is a bigger image which is not massive but better for general use than the 80px version. If we zoomed in, we’d still see the pixels but there are so many pixels that make up the image that we can display it full size without blowing it up and spoiling it. Resolution Resolution is measured in pixels per inch (for web) or dots per inch (for print). It’s more important for print as low resolution images quickly look bad. In print, you’d want 300dpi at the 100% the right size for the image in order…
Small business funding for Cumbria
Are you wanting a new website?Ready to fresh your current one? Your website forms the hub of your online marketing and should be working for you. It should be easy to edit and update, showcase your finest work and act as the backbone for all your digital marketing. If it isn’t, maybe it’s time to review it and give it a makerover. With a general tightening of budgets, Cumbria Business Growth Hub do often offer support packages of the total cost towards support for selected projects including: The above are only a few of the ways you can use a consultant to help develop and grow your business. They’ve worked with a number of small to medium sized businesses, helping them kickstart their marketing through a website redesign on a fund or grant basis. We can provide project information and feedback to Cumbria Growth Hub as needed so that they are informed of the work actioned. An example of an older support offer: “Funds are available for businesses in the first three years of trading: Three supplier quotes and you choose who you work with! If you’re interested in finding out more about any current funding offers, please email [email protected]…
Improving the accessibility of your website
With new legislation around on the subject of Accessibility, it’s probably time you had a look at some of the basics. Why do it? There are a surprising number of online users who have a disability of some sort. Most commonly we think of the visually impaired but it’s more subtle and far reaching than that. As more becomes known about the number of people affected by disabilities, the more need there is for us to ensure that no one is excluded from the information on our websites. Physical disability A surprisingly high number of users are affected by disabilities in some way. Some users may be partially sighted, some may be colour-blind, while others might be physically unable to operate a mouse and can only use a specialised keyboard. Cognitive impairment and learning disabilities can also have a marked affect on how content is taken in. Care needs to be taken not only from a technical viewpoint but also when creating copy or text. Old devices and technologies can present their own challenges so make sure you take sufficient steps to minimise the chances of cutting anyone out from accessing your site. What approach can be used? First, let’s…
What does always-on SSL mean to your business?
SSL / TLS ensures that the connection between your device (phone, tablet, PC) and the website that you’re using is encrypted. This means that data you enter, whether it’s a simple search term or your name and address, can only be accessed by that website – not by a third party. Always-on SSL means that the whole website loads securely. Google will boost your search ranking if you use SSL The web is moving toward being ‘secure by default’ – and Google is one of the leading advocates of this process. Securing your entire website, with all pages loading over SSL/TLS will now count as a positive factor in ranking your site. Browsers may soon start warning your customers that your site is insecure Google Chrome has announced that sites that load over http:// (that is, most sites at this time) should be marked as ‘insecure’. Creating trust is a very important goal of most websites – it’s important to ensure that trust is not compromised by a browser warning. Always-on SSL is fast https:// previously could be significantly slower than http:// – not any more! If properly configured, there is no slowdown in your traffic. It’s affordable Securing your web traffic is…
Do you really own your online business?
Going with Etsy, Facebook or Amazon for your store? Or were you thinking of setting up your own ecommerce shop? While the major platforms have their advantages, they do offer some serious drawbacks too. Have you considered all the implications and read the fineprint? Here are some of our thoughts on the matter…
Why might emails from your website end up in Spam?
Don’t lose potential customers! You have put a lot of effort into converting your website visitors – make sure you don’t lose them at the final hurdle. Here are some basic, and more advanced tips on how to ensure that emails from your website arrive correctly. First – check your setup. Send a regular test email via your website and make sure it gets through. You might have several forms on your site so make sure you test them all. Keep it simple – minimise the number of forms, and the number of email addresses they go to. Save the messages on your site – if you use a good form plugin, such as Gravity Forms, the submissions from your forms will be saved, so even if you lose or accidentally delete the email, the information is backed up. Now some more technical reasons why your mails might not be getting through. TLDR make sure you have correct SPF records and DKIM signing SPF records Your domain should have an SPF record – this is a DNS record which sets out which servers are allowed to send email from your domain. A receiving server should check there is one, and…
Our Work With Google
See the full infographic here: Digital Marketing is a thriving industry and, thanks to Google, we now have a new range of services. We use the Google programs to help develop web presence and build awareness of your website. Google has become central to how we use the internet and our search terms are studied in depth and theories come out left, right and centre. So how do we know which theories are real and which are false? That’s where these programs can help us. All these programs have different functions but all achieve the same goal and this is to expose your website over the internet. Check out the range of Google programs available.
The Secret to Engagement
At Ibex we use our rule of three – Inspire, Interest & Inform. The concept of these engagement techniques are based on the science of persuasion and are considered as persuasion “shortcuts”. These shortcuts are: Inspiring is based on liking the aesthetic imagery, for instant impact, and layout of the information as well as creative writing style. Interest is based on scarcity, authority and liking of a topic. If your readers don’t care, they won’t make emotionally impulsive purchasing decisions. If the information is marketed as rare or valuable, has an appropriate audience, or provides social advantage, and has a reputable source it will be extremely effective. Informing is powerful because of reciprocity, which creates a perceived sense of obligation in the reader to return the favour, in the form of business, when you give away valuable knowledge. Ibex’s expert content marketers will use this rule of three to engage any form of audience. There are further engagement techniques that we can utilise to optimise exposure of your marketing. Asking questions, one that people use a lot, is to get readers to imagine themselves in a scenario that you can create. Engagement of content strategies can be used on social media platforms or your main website….